Harkat Studios

21/05/2026

‘Chandi ka ghar’ was a mini exhibition we put together recently. It became a literal home for a few experiments and excursions. All made with silver based processes. Big projectors making tiny visuals on a double sided screen, flip books all shot on 16mm- you saw the strip and the flip - mediums changed instantly, a small ongoing meditation of the same image on multiple mediums, a slide projection double exposure project. As we work towards a much larger exhibition this year, this was but a prelude. And it was a beautiful one. I want to live in a house made out of silver, sliver away strand by strand and make images wrapped in moonlit nights.

Will you come live there with us?

Exhibits by

Exhibition at

30/04/2026

24/04/2026

In a world where image making is available in everyone’s pocket, चाँदी का घर presents a world of handmade imaginations. All you need is light, darkness, some silver, some salt, grit and lots of love. These are visuals that come out of labor, chemistry and slow darkroom processes. They are from a world where the work doesn’t always come out as expected, where images live as material. 

In this exhibition, one center stages the process of making. These are discoveries, encounters and gentle manipulations made with a sense of intent and play. It attempts to open the world of the viewer to a new way of seeing and feeling images.

Work by Karan Suri Talwar, Keyuri Bhogale, Iti Agarwal, Aditi Mediratta and Michaela Talwar of Harkat Studios.

Exhibition opens tomorrow at 11am as part of

.rious .studios

24/04/2026

Finally we get to use our terrace as it deserves!
Sunday evening 🌴6-7.30pm.

About the Picnic

Conceived and curated by , it is an event that puts playwrights and playwriting centre stage and in the same playing field as other proponents and works of literature.

We believe that playscripts are as viable and various as books, short stories or poems, though they are rarely read or recommended as such.

The playwrights engage in a lively, un-moderated conversation around topics and themes they are concerned about. And they read. They read excerpts of their own work, and indulge in sharing excerpts of their favourite other work – stories, essays, poems, books and what have you.

The musician chimes in throughout the 90-minute conversation, underscoring moments and phrases, and adding to the rhythm and tone of the conversation with their unique music stylings.

Does that sound like a good Sunday? Come spend it with us.
Under the palaquin of the harkat terrace and age-old Aram Nagar trees...

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHTS:
singh05.05 is an award winning children’s and YA author with twenty published titles in English and in Hindi. She runs her own theatre company called “Rahi” where she produces, directs, writes and acts in plays. She creates plays for adults, children and loves working with marginalised communities through theatre and writing, encouraging their voices and their words. She runs the Why Loiter campaign and blogs about the same on whyloiter.blogspot.com. She was chosen as one of hundred most influential women in the world by the BBC for her work with the Why Loiter campaign.

23/04/2026

Watch the full film on SATURDAY AT 5.30 PM at harkat. Tickets on Altshows.com .shows
Film by followed by performance!

22/04/2026

Welcome to the ‘Curryverse’, a walk-in palindrom, interactive video installation. Where the visitor can play with the words as they merge into each other, clean on screen, or crumpled on the floor - become part of the imaginations inside the artist’s mind, reimagine them, seek new words, meanings, read in his mind-book and listen. To the sound of mustard seeds grinding.

EXHIBITION ON
11 AM - 7 PM until SATURDAY 25th APRIL.
nekoyama

15/04/2026

Presenting the 3rd edition of the Harkat 16mm film residency, this time in Ladakh - in collaboration with Achi Association India. After the first two in Kalimpong and Kozhikode, now we do 16mm colour film in Ladakh. Also very delighted to announce that two spots in this residency are supported by the Gujral Foundation and Artdemic.

Please read all the text, in the slides and on the form. Apply. Form link in bio.

.rious

14/04/2026

Imagine an object laying still against a background of constant fluctuation; enveloped in the movement and sound of its environment.

What if this object, which on the surface may seem inanimate, actually has a deeper inner working— an ability to record, hold and recall memories of space and time?

‘This Object From That Film’ is an endeavour to bring together objects of such kind from the world of cinema-making— that roll of half used masking tape, maybe those pants you wore to set, or a prop you stole from set. Anything which holds private stories and secrets (or even inside jokes) yet to be revealed.

The goal is to create an alternative archive of everyday objects from films.

These objects carry a life of their own in this moment; the narrative of which will change once exposed to a public exhibition, giving it a new trace to follow.

The exhibit will pop-up at Aram Nagar 2 in Versova on the 25th and 26th of April.

You can donate your objects anytime by sending us a DM and we will get in touch. We will ofc return your object to you. Remember, this object can be anything.

This exhibit is part of a continuing series of the ‘Museum of Ordinary Objects’ - by Tram Arts Trust (Choiti Ghosh), Sananda Mukhopadhyaya and Harkat (Karan Talwar).

.shows

13/04/2026

Presenting a lecture and exploration with one of the most modern cinema thinkers of our time. Read his note below for context but this session will open your mind and change your view on what cinema can be.

An idea, especially a theoretical idea is like a pupa. A caterpillar that takes its own time to mature into a butterfly. The pupa of Prayoga was born in Scree Unit’s mimeographed program note, precisely on 2nd September of 1986. In this program note, I had questioned the Western terms of the Experimental and the Avantgarde. The idea of ‘prayoga’ was born in the pupa of ‘protest’. At Harkat, we are celebrating its 40th birth anniversary (1986-2026) tonight. It took almost two decades for the pupa to emerge from its shell – at the Experimenta, curated by Shai Heredia. In 2005. And then in the following year, at the Tate Modern, London, it took its first flight.
 
Cinema Prayoga is a rigorous practice, it resists the dominance of ‘capital’ as it works within available resources as far as possible. Without surrendering to ‘market’ pressures, the Prayoga film retains its simplicity without being simplistic. It has the basic faith in its alternative discipline and in finding new aesthetic and ingenuous ways of harnessing technology, fathoming its secrets. It is an open concept and not closed or absolute. The rigour of austerity is at its core, austerity in the sense of minimum dependence on the expensive means for cinematographic appurtenances. No stars. No glamour. Focus is not just on what story is told, but how it is told. The process.
 
Cinema Prayoga, both as a thought and the theory of praxis, is an enduring experience. It doesn’t separate form from content or vice versa. When market forces force ‘content’ to be supreme, it is at the cost of artistic experience and deeper joy. Cinema Prayoga is an enduring state of turmoil of ānanda, deepened both by the creator (sarjak) and the appreciator (bhāvak). It creates no binaries between East and West, rather it aims at substituting the Euro-American centric term Experiment with Indian holistic wisdom of Prayoga – in filmmaking praxis. And in the dynamism of Time & Space. The very essence of our Being.

08/04/2026

Have you ever witnessed a film coming into being in real time? A dance between the projectionists and their reels, each image is a manifestation of live imagination experimentation, and manipulation.

You do not want to miss the sanctity of live image creation. Performed by Harkat’s very own and .rious

At Indiffernt, Bandra on Saturday, April 11th at 7pm.

Get your tickets on Alt Shows!shows

🫶 made possible by and
.studios

07/04/2026

Film dev party highlights:

- It’s a darkroom and lab party. Also a dance and music party.
- You bring your stills roll. We develop it in front of you. Colour, b/w, expired, fresh, anything.
- We’re also giving out rolls you can shoot. 5222 Double-X. Select film roll plus party to get yours.
- Even if you don’t shoot, come to party and shoot a bunch randomly. Then develop with us.

We’ll setup a film bar, where along with film cocktails we’ll be taking rolls. You sip a cocktail, we develop your roll. A range of custom chemistries, vibe developing will all be available. Including Beer and Wine developing. You can go as basic or experimental as you like. Because we can develop almost anything. Or so we we think.

Also, we make some hand-drawn films on the spot, we watch them projected with a crowd.
(we also have some trashy 35mm bollywood trailers) . Maybe we ask you to guess light meter readings or randomly play film games. It promises to be a nerdy fun night. More fun, less nerdy, more film, less jargon.

Main conspirators: .rious

Link and more details in bio.